Broken Link
by PaigeTurner91
Summary: Takes place during "Broken Link". Read "O.C. Profile" first-it will clear up confusion.


_A.N.: Hi there!!!! These are just brief snippets from one of my fanfiction ideas. If anyone could give me any ideas or constructive criticism, that would be very appreciated. Thank You!!!_

_To understand what's going on, you need to understand a few things:_

_"Quint" is my Deep Space 9. O.C. Her full name is Majel Lioi Quint. She's a human ensign (21) in the science division as a librarian and historian on DS9, but because she's gotten high honors she works with the senior staff on DS9. (She's not annoying like Wesley, trust me. She doesn't save everybody at the last minute, automatically "know things" or anything improbable like that.) She has the most connection with Odo, the security chief of D, who is also a Changeling (a shapeshifing species that can turn into anything, even fire and light)_

_These snippets come from my version of the DS9 episode "Broken Link." At this point, Quint, Sisko, Bashir, and Odo have already beamed down to the Founder's (Odo's people, who can change shape but true form is a gelatinous state) homeworld. Odo was infected with a disease that can only be cured by them so he would be forced to return home to be judged by the Founders for killing another Founder who was attacking his friends. Quint, Bashir, and Sisko are waiting on a rocky atoll for Odo, who is in a Changeling sea called "The Great Link" , where Founders meld together in their natural state to convey information and feelings_

_After waiting for a few hours for Odo, Sisko notices something happening in the "water"... _

_ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Doctor , Quint, look!" he cried urgently

Bashir and I looked up and saw The Great Link had begun to churn violently.

" What's going on?" I asked, a slight look of apprehension on my face as we all reacted to the bizarre phenomenon.

The churning grew even more violent, like a cataclysmic storm. Suddenly, Odo came to the surface-I was about to yell for joy-but happiness turned to terror as I heard Odo give off a groan of pain, and gasping for air like a drowning man.

"ODO!!!" I yelled, seeing he was in pain.

He was dragged down beneath the surface again, as a wave of Changeling goo then broke against the shore of the atoll, and receded like a tide. When it pulled back, it uncovered Odo, slumped on his side, naked as a newborn babe.

We all immediately rushed to Odo's side, but I got there first.

"Odo, are you all right?" Sisko asked.

"What happened?" I cried, concerned, keeping a watchful eye on him as Bashir scanned him with a medical tricorder.

Bashir then spoke up: "Captain, I'm getting some very strange readings…"

Suddenly, Sisko nudged Bashir and I, and we then looked up and saw The Female Changeling step out of the Great Link.

Sisko went up to her accusatorily.

"What have you done to him?" he asked angrily.

"He has been judged," she said simply.

I was right next to Odo, doing my best to calm him down, but I couldn't see what was wrong with him. He looked the same as always, but something was wrong-he seemed oddly distracted and bewildered, moving his hands lightly over his chest, but mostly over the _right_ side of his chest-where a person's heart should be.

I was confused:

_Odo doesn__'__t _have _a heart,_ I thought._ He's a Changeling- so why__'__s he doing that? _

Bashir answered my unspoken question:

"Captain," he said, " I'm reading a heart, lungs, and a digestive system- It's as if he were …human."

"Human?" I asked, awestruck.

Apprehensively, I put my hand on his chest-and was surprised to feel a frantically beating heart, fluttering like a bird.

"Oh my God…" I breathed.

The Female Changeling spoke:

"We gave him what he wanted," she said, with no emotion. "We made him a Solid."

I was taken aback.

"_What_?" I asked.

"He's one of you now." The female Changeling continued.

I was stunned.

_Odo didn't do anything wrong, _I thought_. He was just trying to save us from getting killed by that Changeling. _

_Odo didn't even _want _to harm him-there was _no_ intent to kill, Odo even _told _the Changeling that before he died !!! Didn't the other Changelings in the Great Link that judged him realize that, didn't they _sense_ that? And _this_ is the price he has to pay for siding with us Solids-stuck as one of us?_

Then she walked over to Odo, bent down and touched his face. Odo, too weak to talk (or let alone move), just looked up at her.

"Poor Odo," she lamented, with hint of regret in her voice. "Perhaps we should have killed you. It would have been _far_ less cruel."

She gave Odo a final caress, then stood up and met Sisko's gaze.

"He's yours," she said. "Take him and go."

Sisko met the Female Shape-shifter's gaze. He studied her for a moment, and then hit his combadge.

"Sisko to Defiant." he said.

"Go ahead, Captain." Dax's voice said over the comline.

"Four to beam up." Sisko replied.

All four of us were beamed away, leaving the Female Shape-shifter alone on that rocky shore.

As we materialized on the _Defiant, _I gave off a scream of pent up frustration.

"NO!!!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A few hours later, Odo, Bashir, and I were in the Defiant's sickbay. I was watching intently, while Odo was sitting on a bed, wearing a hospital robe. He seemed lost in his own thoughts, trying to make sense of what had happened to him. Bashir was finishing up a complete medical exam. He drew blood from Odo's arm, then held it up and shook it-it still stayed blood. Bashir continued to study it, as Odo rubbed his arm.

"Staring at it isn't going to make it change shape." Odo said curtly.

"It's blood, all right," Bashir said, looking at the vial. " Not a trace of changeling protoplasm in the entire sample."

Bashir put it in a slot in a medical console for analysis.

"Type "O" negative, if you were wondering." he added.

Odo didn't seem enthused. "I'll be sure to remember that," he said gruffly.

Bashir continued to study the console.

"You know, physiologically," he said, " you're completely human."

A few seconds passed.

"Except for my face." Odo countered, looking away.

Bashir and I looked at him. We knew it was painful for the constable, but we couldn't help but be curious.

"Yes, I was wondering about that." Bashir said. "Why they left it unchanged."

"True," I interjected. "If they turned you human, it'd make more sense to make you _look_ human, too."

"They left it this way on purpose." Odo said simply. "To make sure I'd never forget what I was..."

He paused, and stared at the floor.

"And …what I've lost."

We kept quiet for a moment as Odo looked down at his hands and arms, studying his new "Solid" body.

But I spoke up again:

" You've lost something of yourself, I won't deny that…"

I came over to him, took one of his hands, and gently put it over his heart:

"…But you've gotten something else..."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Suddenly Odo stopped in his tracks. He looked a little unsteady.

Sisko and I came up to Odo:

"Constable, are you all right?" Sisko asked.

Odo turned and saw Sisko and I standing behind him.

"You look sick." I added.

"It's nothing." Odo said. "Just... a headache."

"_Really_?" I asked, not believing him one bit.

After a few seconds, Odo continued.

"Every once in a while I still get flashes of memory from the Great Link. A jumble of images, or a word. But I can't quite make sense of it."

Sisko spoke. "You know, there's no reason for you to rush things. You don't have to go back to work right away."

"Yes, I _do_." Odo said forcefully.

After seeing both of our skeptical gazes, he tried to explain:

"When I joined with the other Changelings in the Great Link," Odo began, "I felt something I'd never felt before. In that moment, I knew... I was _home_."

My heart instantly went out to Odo-being so close to his people, to what made him _him_- a feeling I'd never truly felt.

"For the first time, I felt like I understood my people-their distrust of the Solids, their willingness to do anything to protect themselves…"

I could understand _that_-being teased and ridiculed during my school days, I'd get into fights with bullies, despite my usually peaceful nature, to protect myself-but not willing to wage full-out _war_ against them.

"And then…" he paused, and began to shake with emotion. "…In an instant it was all snatched away."

My hands were clenched in fists of rage, anger swelling in my gut. I was barely able to contain my fury.

_How _dare_ they do this to him, _I thought in my head. _It wasn't _fair_. Taking away his shape-shifting abilities-what made Odo who he this was as good as death to him…_

I remembered the first time I'd ever seen him turn into an animal –an Arbazan vulture, to be exact-and the look on his face when he turned back to his humanoid form. The way he was gushing-actually _gushing_, the way I would about a _book!_ -about _being _the bird, talking about the wind beneath his wings and soaring above the treetops…his arms still outstretched, reliving that flight in his mind…

And my heart sank as I realized he'd never have that kind of freedom again. He was trapped, grounded-an exotic, incredible bird whose wings were clipped by a cruel, sadistic force with no sympathy or feelings whatsoever.

"I'm _trapped _inside this body," he continued. "I can never rejoin the Great Link." With a touch of bitter finality, he said, "My _job_ is the only thing I have left."

Odo saw the empathy on our faces, and I could see it was making him uncomfortable. He continued.

"Besides," he said, closing up again, " I'm still the best law enforcement officer on this station."

"You're the best law enforcement officer in this _sector_..." Sisko said. "Maybe the whole damn _quadrant_."

"Maybe," Odo said.

"Of _course _you are," I spoke up, putting my hand on his shoulder. "Solid or Changeling, you're _still_ the only guy _I'd _trust to do the job right."

We then saw a crowd of people gathered at one of the monitors near Quark's.

"What's that all about?" Odo asked.

"I have no idea." Sisko replied.

"Neither do I." I added.

We made our way to the monitor. I saw Kira in the crowd, watching the monitor, which displayed Chancellor Gowron, making a fiery speech:

"The Klingon Empire is tired of words, of negotiation, of the endless delaying tactics of the Federation."

Kira began explaining, overlapping with the transmission: "It's coming in on all frequencies."

Gowron continued on the monitor:

"Therefore, as of today, a Klingon task force has been dispatched to the Archanis Sector. Starfleet has ten days to abandon their bases and withdraw their forces from the Sector."

We all reacted to Gowron's threat, and talked as Gowron's words faded into the background.

Sisko turned to Kira with urgency, putting a hand on her shoulder, "Major," he said in a hushed voice, "put the station on combat alert. Notify the Bajoran militia..."

I was terrified-was this going to lead to more war? What were we going to _do_?

As I turned to look at Odo, I saw him react with a sudden realization-his eyes widened and became fixated on Gowron,

As Kira went to go, he put his hand on her shoulder-keeping her from leaving, and he moved forward, closer to the screen.

"Captain." He said, almost in a daze. "It's _him_."

Sisko turned to Odo. "Gowron?" he asked. "What about him?"

"During the Link," Odo explained, " I sensed that the other Changelings were trying to hide things from me. Faces… names... One of them was _him_."

Kira was shocked. "What are you saying?" she asked.

"I'm saying," Odo answered, "that _he's_… one of _them_. Gowron…the head of the Klingon Empire... is a _Changeling_."

I looked at him, and back at the screen with fear:

"Oh, no…" I gasped.

As the implications of Odo's words sank in, the final bit of Gowron's message was heard:

"Let there be no mistake, no misinterpretation of my words. Archanis is _ours _and we _will take it back_. Resist us in any way, and there will be_ war_…"


End file.
